


Greatest Times

by quasarstar



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Acceptance, Angst, F/M, Fluff, Self-Acceptance, a drunk and an altmer fall in love, awkward family stuff, mentionings of past relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-11
Updated: 2015-04-11
Packaged: 2018-03-22 10:08:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3724906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quasarstar/pseuds/quasarstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Faedra, an Altmer on the run from her destiny as Dragonborn, comes across a city of stone, a drunken Breton and a complete turn around in her plans to escape the life she was assigned to live. Will her hate for responsibility consume her? Or will she find a kindred spirit and ride out the storm with him? Only time and the woman herself will tell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Greatest Times

It’s hard to believe, but some people never ask to be who they were born as. We like to think that everybody is happy with the lives they live but that can't be the truth. Not all the time.

At least that's true for me.

My name is Faedra and those statements were exactly why I had run from a life of being a puppet of the Thalmor like my parents and their parents before them. And also why I had fled to the far reaches of Skyrim to escape the responsibility of becoming a hero to the land and drawing attention to myself.

You see, back then, I wasn't exactly a hero to my people. And I would continue to not be a hero for as long as I openly declared that we should strive for equality, not putting down other cultures or peoples for not having our exact beliefs. Also I may or may not have abandoned the post I was assigned back in Cyrodiil in order to find a life that I could actually be happy with.

So, it should be a bit obvious by now that I was not a fan of settling with a plan that I hated. Which was why I had used what small amounts of coin I had to take myself to the city of Markarth. The city was so excluded from everything, it was almost too perfect.

I could have done without seeing somebody be murdered in front of me as soon as I walked into the city, but I guess that's Skyrim for you. You're thrown right into the thick of things and if you don't jump right back onto your feet and punch whatever threw you straight in the neck, then you're thrown to the wolves. Or giant spiders, I suppose.

But I seem to be getting ahead of myself again, it seems. You have my apologies.

Now, I believe it's imperative to mention that I wasn't alone when I entered the city. I had Lydia, my housecarl from Whiterun by my side to make sure that if I got into any trouble, she could simply stab the trouble with her sword and then push it off a cliff while I set the remaining little tidbits of trouble on fire. She adored telling me of my obligations to Skyrim, however, so I mainly just did quite a few things to please her, such as going and speaking to the Greybeards as well as retrieving, or not retrieving, the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller.

So, after all of those obligations were filled, I decided to take myself and Lydia to Markarth to see what all the fuss was about. I was not disappointed. Except for the part where we watched an innocent woman get murdered in the streets, but the rest of our stay was exemplary!

What I did not state, however, is that we stopped into a local inn to try and erase our memories of what just occurred. I was angry and wanted to hit something for that poor woman.

As I sat down at the bar, Lydia got us some ales from the innkeeper while also trying to stay out of his carnal disagreement. I looked out the corner of my light green eyes and saw a Breton man looking down at his bottle and then to me repeatedly. As I said, I was still angry about that woman being stabbed in the back while buying jewelry, so I was not in the mood for this.

“Hey, little man,” I exclaimed a bit bitterly “, what are you looking at?”

The blond Breton looked up at me again, a little more intense this time, and retorted:

“How about a little bet?”

I quirked an eyebrow to him and before I could realize how much he had caught my attention, I quickly took the bet.

“Alright, what’s the bet and how can I win it?”

The barkeep obviously heard this and decided to intervene and completely ignored his wife and poor, sweet Lydia.

“Please don’t mind Cosnach, he’s a bit of a-“

The poor man wasn’t able to finish his statement though due to the fact that I raised my hand up and told him to shush.

“Now,” I continued while the balding man turned back to his, now laughing, wife “, tell me more about this bet before we’re so rudely interrupted, again, little man.”

Cosnach smirked at me before stating how he was drunk and wanted to fight me because of it. I immediately agreed. I don’t believe I need to restate how angry I was, again, and I needed to hit somebody very badly.

I stood up from my stool before he did, but the first punch was his. I knew that he had a disadvantage of being drunk and I wanted to go a little easy on him. Turns out it didn’t take much to knock him to the ground. I may be a slender Altmer woman who only uses magic, but he had drunken enough to make me feel a bit bad about hitting him.

I took a bit of pity on him and helped Cosnach off the ground, placing one hand on his back and grabbed his right hand with my own. When he was back on his feet, I helped him over to his previous stool and sat him down again.

“Wait! I can still fight! No, no I can’t…”

I have to admit, the way he said that did make him look kind of cute. I sat on the stool beside him and began casting a healing hands spell on his new black eye, making it fade almost instantly.

“Heheh,” I chuckled and looked at him “, I think I won that bet.”

“You ain’t lyin’, best fight I’ve had in a while. Here’s your gold.”

Cosnach handed me the bag of one-hundred gold I had given him and the gold he had wagered and then turned back to his drink with a smile before I was even done healing his eye.

Feeling a bit ignored I placed my hand under his chin and forced him to look at me again.

“You know, I was healing your face for a reason, little man.” I flashed a sarcastic smile to him as I began my spell again.

Cosnach looked to me with his grey eyes and flashed me another smile, now showing more teeth. This act was obviously a form of flirting, which was actually very fun. This wasn’t my first time flirting with a person I had just met. Flirting with a person that I had just beaten up, yes, but not the first time I flirted with a stranger.

Once I had stopped my spell, I noticed that Cosnach also seemed to be a bit more sober than before and was able to focus more on certain things as well as keep his balance in his sitting position. For example, he was looking at my features with more intent this time and scanned his eyes over the slight scar on my left cheek to the red eyeshadow and lipstick I had on my face, and even to my half-shaved scalp with any remaining golden hair placed on the left side of my head.

I pulled my hands away and smiled back to him as he pushed one of the two braids on either side of the front of his face out of the way of his right eye, making him seem a bit more rugged and unsophisticated. And, by the Eight, I absolutely adored that.

‘”You know, you’re pretty cute for a woman that just kicked my ass.”

I laughed loudly at his choice of wording and placed my hand over his. My fingers may have been longer than his, but even by touching the back of his hand, I could tell that Cosnach’s palms were calloused and rough.

“Well, you don’t look too bad, yourself, Cosnach…”

“What do you say you and I head back to my place for some-“

“My thane, I purchased us two rooms here.”

Cosnach’s offer had been cut short by Lydia’s return to my side with two bottles of ale and a room key for me.

I looked up at her with a nod “Thank you, Lydia, you are dismissed. You may go rest in your room.”

She nodded back to me and then walked to the left to her room and closed the door after handing me my key and my ale. I then looked back to Cosnach before I stood up and winked to him.

“I don’t know about you, little man-“

“My name is Cosnach, magey.”

“And mine is Faedra. I don’t know about you, _Cosnach_ , but I’ve had quite a long day and I think I’ll go to bed.”

I turned around to walk to my room across from Lydia’s but not before I heard Cosnach’s voice behind me.

“Wait,” he stated as he turned around on his stool “, are we gonna fool around or not?”

I smirked and turned back around to look to him, now a couple of feet taller than him because of his seated position. I placed my left hand under his chin and lifted it up a bit.

“Cosnach, you’re very cute, and any other time, I would jump at the chance to play with you. But I don’t sleep with people that have a possibility of not remembering it the next morning.”

Cosnach looked very shocked, to say the least, but said nothing of it and nodded. He also looked a touch bit wounded, but I think that could be said for any man who had just been turned down. I was about to turn around again but he finally spoke again.

“So if I was more sober, would you and I be able to?...”

He hit his fists together and then spread his fingers out as if to describe an explosion. I slightly, and I hate to admit this, giggled before I removed my hand from under his chin.

“You seem to be very excited to sleep with a woman that just kicked your ass.”

“Well, you’re the one that called me cute.”

He gave me a toothy grin before raising his ale in the air and drinking.

“Good night, Cosnach.” I set my ale on the counter beside him and put my hand on his shoulder.

“I hope we run into each other again.”

“Same here, Faedra. Oh, by the by, if you need another sword by your side, just come and find me.”

I smirked and winked to him before strutting to my room while swaying my hips. I could feel his eyes burning holes in my leather armor as I talked to him over my shoulder.

“Good night, Cosnach.”

As I reached my room and unlocked the door, I looked back to him. Cosnach had turned back around and relaxed with his drink as he ordered a bit of food from the innkeeper. As I looked over his form, and chuckled to myself, I thought of how amazing this city might actually turn out to be.

Now that drunk man is my husband. I suppose that means this is the story of how our relationship became more than flirtatious lust and how he helped me save the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Here we go! My first story! I hope people enjoy it!


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